Mybuilder vs Rated People vs Checkatrade for Electricians: Which Is Worth It?

The three platforms use different business models, which affects how you use them and what you pay:

Checkatrade

Checkatrade is a directory model. You pay a membership fee to be listed, customers browse the directory and contact you directly, and you build a profile with verified reviews. There is no per-lead charge under the standard membership — you pay a fixed annual fee and receive however many enquiries your profile generates. Checkatrade vets tradespeople before listing them, checking qualifications and insurance.

MyBuilder

MyBuilder is a marketplace model. Customers post jobs, and tradespeople purchase "leads" to express interest in those jobs. There is no subscription — you pay only when you choose to connect with a posted job. Pricing is per-lead and varies by job type and location. The customer then sees which tradespeople have expressed interest and chooses who to contact.

Rated People

Rated People is also a marketplace model, similar to MyBuilder. Customers post jobs, you pay per lead to respond, and the customer decides who to invite to quote. There is a pay-per-lead cost, and you can set up a profile that accumulates reviews from completed jobs.

Pricing on all three platforms changes frequently and varies by trade, location, and plan. Always verify current pricing directly with each platform before signing up. The structures below reflect how they work, not fixed figures:

Checkatrade

• Annual membership fee — published pricing has varied; electrician fees have typically been in the range of several hundred to over a thousand pounds per year for a sole trader
• Some plans include lead credits or enhanced visibility; others are directory-only
• Checkatrade also sells advertising add-ons separately
• No per-lead charge under the core membership model

MyBuilder

• Pay-per-lead: you buy credits and spend them to express interest in posted jobs
• Lead costs vary by job type — smaller jobs (fault finding, certificate requests) cost fewer credits than large projects (full rewires, large commercial installs)
• You choose which jobs to spend credits on; there is no minimum monthly spend
• Leads are shared — multiple tradespeople can purchase the same lead

Rated People

• Pay-per-lead model, similar to MyBuilder
• Customers post jobs and you pay to respond; the customer receives up to three responses
• Lead costs vary by job category and location
• Optional subscription plans may reduce per-lead costs or provide lead credits

Key takeaway: Checkatrade is a fixed annual cost regardless of lead volume. MyBuilder and Rated People are variable costs — you can spend more when busy periods allow and less when full. This suits different cash flow situations differently.

Platform structure directly shapes lead quality:

Checkatrade leads

Customers who browse Checkatrade and contact you directly have typically done more research before reaching out. They've read your profile, seen your reviews, and chosen to contact you specifically. This tends to produce higher-intent leads with better conversion rates — but the volume depends entirely on your profile quality and review count.

MyBuilder and Rated People leads

The marketplace model means customers often post a job and wait to see which tradespeople express interest. Several tradespeople buy the same lead. Customers routinely receive interest from three to six tradespeople for the same job and then compare. This competitive dynamic pushes some customers to anchor on price rather than quality. Conversion rates from marketplace leads are typically lower than direct directory enquiries.

Job type availability:

• All three platforms carry domestic electrical work — EICRs, consumer unit upgrades, rewires, fault finding, EV chargers, socket and lighting additions
• Commercial work is available on all platforms but less common; most posted jobs are domestic
• Emergency out-of-hours work is rarely posted on these platforms — those customers tend to search Google directly

Common complaint across all three: "tyre kicker" leads — customers who post a job, collect quotes, then don't proceed, or who have unrealistic budget expectations. This is more common on marketplace models (MyBuilder, Rated People) because the barrier to posting a job is very low.

On MyBuilder and Rated People, you are competing for attention from the moment a customer posts a job. Understanding this dynamic helps you decide whether the model suits you:

Response speed matters enormously. Customers on these platforms often go with whoever responds first and sounds most competent. If you're on the tools all day and only check MyBuilder in the evening, you are systematically losing to tradespeople who respond within minutes.

Your profile and reviews determine the shortlist. A customer receiving six expressions of interest will look at each profile before deciding who to invite to quote. A MyBuilder or Rated People profile with 40 reviews at 4.9 stars will get invited far more often than a profile with 8 reviews at 4.3 — even if both respond equally quickly.

Lead costs are sunk whether you win or not. On marketplace platforms, you pay for the lead when you express interest — not when you win the job. If your quote-to-job conversion rate from marketplace leads is 20%, every five leads you purchase produces one job. Factor this into your cost per acquired customer calculation.

The competitive spiral: some tradespeople respond to marketplace pressure by cutting price. This reduces the job's profitability and trains the platform's customer base to expect low prices. Being competitive on quality, professionalism, and speed of communication is a more sustainable response than competing on price.

Checkatrade is better suited to you if:

• You're willing to invest in building a strong profile with consistent review collection over months
• You do enough jobs per year that a fixed annual membership cost is predictable and manageable
• You prefer a steady stream of direct enquiries over a marketplace bidding environment
• You have NICEIC, NAPIT, or ELECSA registration that Checkatrade can verify and display

MyBuilder or Rated People may suit you better if:

• You want to test lead platform marketing without a large upfront commitment
• Your work volume is variable and you want to control monthly spend
• You're good at responding to enquiries quickly and closing quotes
• You're in an area where Checkatrade has high competition and your profile would struggle to stand out

None of them may be right if:

• You're already at or near capacity through existing customers and referrals
• Your average job value is low — the economics work better at higher job values
• You haven't yet built a profile with enough reviews for any platform to generate meaningful volume

All three platforms have one thing in common: you're renting leads from a third party. The alternative is owning your lead generation through channels that build compounding value:

Google Business Profile

Free to create and maintain. A GBP with consistent reviews and complete information generates local search visibility that grows over time. Once established, it produces leads with no ongoing cost. NICEIC and NAPIT registration gives you a visible quality signal.

Simple website with local SEO

Targeting "[service] [town]" search terms drives organic enquiries. A well-optimised site for your local area competes directly with Checkatrade in search results. Initial investment and then low ongoing cost — and unlike a platform subscription, your site ranks whether you're paying or not.

Referral systems

A structured approach to asking satisfied customers for referrals — and for Google reviews — builds your reputation independently of any third-party platform. Each satisfied customer in your network is a potential source of future work.

The realistic view: most electricians use a combination. Lead platforms fill capacity gaps, especially early in a business's life. As Google reviews accumulate and your website ranks, owned channels carry more of the load. The goal is to gradually reduce platform dependency and own your lead flow — not necessarily to abandon platforms entirely in the short term.